Popular Culture

Vegetable Dyes

Crete has a long tradition of dyeing wool in colours obtained from plants and animals.

In the past, and to a degree even today, the working of raw materials was done by the weavers themselves, who processed all the products they used in the weaving process.

In the Minoan era, the manufacture of purple dyes from sea shells was already known, as well as other colours from such as the kerma insect (prinokouki) that feeds on the leaves of various oaks and cedar.

Difficult though it is to credit perhaps, yet the ancient tradition of herbal and vegetable dyes continues even today in the mountainous areas of Crete, especially Mylopotamos.